Rivers Day Festival

An upcoming event in Cambridge this month is the Rivers Day Festival (Sunday, 25th September 2011, 10 am - 6 pm, on Jesus Green), which I'm thoroughly looking forward to! It covers a whole host of activities from canoeing, rowing, punting & fishing, to chats with local residential narrowboat owners and a look around their boats (I really ought to think about a list of questions!). There will also be some short river-related films to be shown at The Waterman (one of my fave pubs!) I'll try to post some photos.

In the meantime, to gather as much information as I can, I've been scouring online forums (CanalWorld seems to be one of the more popular ones) and investing in a few boaty books. A list of these can be found in my new Boat Books widget that I've added to the righthand column. For what it's worth, I'll add my reviews on these books as & when I read them.

Mooring List Update A few weeks back I received an email from the Streets & Open Spaces team, who asked if I still wished to remain on the list. After confirming that I did, today I found out my current position - 51st.

I have to admit, I'm quite shocked at how quickly I seem to be progressing up the list!

Mooring List Update

Today I emailed the council to find out where I am currently on the mooring list, and got a pleasant surprise - 92nd!

A jump of 39 places in 2 months!

The main reason I got in contact was that the council website (which shows you the next 5 people to be offered licences) always seemed to show the same 5 reference numbers. Apparently, these 5 are waiting for wide-beam licences (2.15 metres/7.06 feet or more), which rarely come up. In fact, these guys have been waiting since the very start of the current mooring policy in 2006! This renders the info on the website pretty meaningless, so I'll have to email them every time I need an update (the administration of which has now been taken over by the Streets & Open Spaces team).

The wait begins...

Today I had an email from the Cambridge City Council confirming that I'm on the waiting list for a residential mooring licence. Wahoo!

Unfortunately, I'm 131st on the list! Boo!!

Oh well. It looks like I'm in for a 5 year wait, rather than 3! It's all good, though! By then, I'll have hopefully done as much preparation as I can, and if I'm not certain that I'm doing the right thing, I can always back out!

You may say I'm a dreamer

Hi, my name's Ian (why do I feel like I'm at an AA meeting?) Just to put you in the picture, I'm in my early 40s and have lived in Cambridge for nearly 25 years. For the last few months I've been nurturing a crazy dream... to start a brand new life living aboard a narrowboat on the river Cam. Not that I've ever set foot on a narrowboat, you understand; let alone lived on one! Still can't shake off this feeling that I'd love it, though!

Hmm. Mid-life crisis, p'raps?

Anyway, last week I put my name on the waiting list for a residential mooring, and have even thought of a name for my imaginary future boat - Viola Mac (in memory of my late mother).

You see? Halfway there already!

In all seriousness, I have been doing as much online research as I can. Scouring brokerage sites to get an idea of the current boat layouts & prices, and 'liveaboard' forums to learn from those who've done it all before. There's also been a certain amount of navel-gazing going on...

Am I physically hardy enough for such a lifestyle? Those last two winters? Brrr!!!

Will I fit in with the river community? I'm not sure I fit in with this land-based one!

It'd be such a radical change, that I'm definitely going to have to curb my initial enthusiasm. More research needed. But hey, there's an estimated 3-5 year waiting period for my residential mooring, so no rush!